1). Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and a method for assembling electronics, more specifically to programming or testing of the electronics.
2). Discussion of Related Art
Electronic assemblies such as printed circuit boards, etc., are usually manufactured by transferring a circuit board to an assembly area and then using a pick-and-place device to transfer individual electronic components from separate, adjacent feed devices such as tape feeders or cartridge feeders to the circuit board. The circuit board, with the electronic devices thereon, is then transferred through a reflow oven, whereafter the electronic devices are secured to the circuit board.
It is often necessary to program some of these electronic devices before they are located on the circuit board. The electronic devices are usually separately programmed before being located in or on tapes, cartridges, etc. In some cases a mechanism, separate from the pick-and-place mechanism, is usually dedicated to transfer electronic devices one at a time from a feed device such as a tape feeder to an offline programmer. The electronic devices are then programmed by the offline programmer and transferred by the dedicated mechanism back to the feed device. These dedicated mechanisms are expensive, typically costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each; moreover, a separate mechanism has to be provided for each separate programmer, so that the total cost equals the cost of one dedicated mechanism multiplied by the total number of programmers. These dedicated mechanisms also take up a large amount of space that can be used, for example, by more feed devices. They also inhibit throughput, because they tend to be slow.